Waterloo (La Porte City), IA

Hickory Hills Park

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2.55(based on 5 reviews)
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9 0
knobby325
Gold level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 8.7 years 323 played 248 reviews
2.00 star(s)

Faded Diamond

Reviewed: Played on:Apr 4, 2022 Played the course:once

Pros:

-Decent Layout, use of area
-Good mix, technical/open, long/short
-Couple of water carries, but not really worrisome

Cons:

-Baskets have seen better days
-Grass tees, an orange strip metal for the front of the box
-Tee signs fading, differ from orange strip of info
-Was re-designed sometime before 2014 away from the lake
-Plenty of room to make 18, could include most of old layout
-Long walk from #9 basket back to parking (about 1/4 mile)

Other Thoughts:

Hickory Hills is a lovely county park about 12 miles south of Waterloo, IA. From an old map and old pictures, this course has had holes 3-9 completely moved from it's inception. Looks like sometime between 2012 and 2014 (based on pictures and past reviews). The current layout has a lot going for it. After an easy start on 1 and 2, 3 is a blind drop off near the road, 4 and 5 both have water carries (less so on 5, but still in play) 6-9 meander up a hill to a meadow and back down again off another corner. What really lacks here is the mechanics. The baskets are old and worn. The tee signage is old and worn. There is currently a little orange strip of metal that designates the tee box with hole number and distance, but this differs from most of the old tee signage. With some effort, this could be a much better course. Add concrete tees. Add decent signage. Replace the baskets. There is all kinds of space to add 9 more holes, either using the previous layout or other areas of the park (especially west of the 7-9 section). If taken care of, this could really be a destination course, there would even be possibilities for multiple pads on most of the existing holes to add dynamics. The potential is here. As is, it's a nice 9 hole course in a county park. I would play here again.
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2 0
jacobsladder
Experience: 28 years 136 played 10 reviews
3.00 star(s)

2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Nov 25, 2012 Played the course:once

Pros:

Scenery is nice
Well maintained courses
Presents many challenges for all levels of players

Cons:

Popular park for swimming and camping in the summer. Some holes may be hard to play due to people on the course

Other Thoughts:

When i recently played this course, I realized that I played it 15 years ago when I lived in Iowa.
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5 0
iblanchard
Bronze level trusted reviewer
Experience: 20.9 years 244 played 28 reviews
2.50 star(s)

Risky 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Jul 27, 2012 Played the course:once

Pros:

-Has some very difficult and risky holes. Most of the holes give a different challenge. Some holes give a conservative and aggressive option.
-No one else was playing.

Cons:

-It was difficult to find hole one. I blew right by it and ended up parking by basket 8. Basically by one of the brown direction signs you will find a small gravel parking lot that doesn't really seem like parking. The tee is on the other side of the road with a white map of the course. Maybe I'm blind, but I couldn't find tee to hole 5 so I just guessed. It is towards the back of the park.
-Signs are not too helpful
-People at the park may be in the way.

Other Thoughts:

Some holes to note:
Hole 3 you pretty much have to lay up at the bottom of the hill unless you can be confident you can throw it 390 on the fly. It's about 150 to carry the weeds and the water at the bottom.
Hole 7: Apparently you are supposed to throw it down a narrow 10 foot pipe through thick woods about 250 ft straight. I chose to go around. If you veer off the fairway good luck finding your disc.
Hole 8: It is downhill and you can throw it over the tall bushes and short trees. Id say about 200 feet, but you are greeted with a very large tree in the way at the bottom. I went around and it probably added 100 ft, but it was very open.
Hole 9: Follows the trail, but it is uphill and at least 250 to carry the tall grass and bushes. Spotter wouldn't be a bad idea. Basket is to the left.
I didn't mind this course. A little too much risk of losing your disc for my liking. Beginners will be very intimidated. If I was camping there I would play again, but wont go out of my way. If you like the challenge and you are in the Waterloo area it would be good to try.
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2 0
jwetter
Experience: 110 played 29 reviews
1.00 star(s)

Hickory Hills Park 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Jun 25, 2011 Played the course:once

Pros:

This course started out well with the first two holes being fun holes with good paths through the woods. After that the whole course went down hill.

Cons:

After the second hole the signs started to be missing and because there are no pads we had no idea where to start the hole. In addition it made the course very hard to follow. The holes were also very close to weeds and water. Many shots were blind and then into a spot that would be impossible to hit if you have not played the course before. This course is not worth playing once and not worth the drive to it.
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5 0
insobox
Experience: 15.2 years 76 played 7 reviews
4.00 star(s)

A Texan in Iowa. 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Aug 15, 2009 Played the course:once

Pros:

- Second year at the Park, we do a family get together here every summer and last year I noticed the Disc Golf course but really wasn't in to playing at that time.
- Truly the most beautiful course I've played. It's just so green in Iowa, and not so in Texas especially in August.
- So green, manicured mowed fairways, huge elm's.
Hole #1: Nice warm-up hole with a beautiful 20 foot circular 'green' with the basket in the center.
Hole #2: I love this hole, straight down the pipe with woods on both sides, great for people that can keep a disc straight.
Hole #3, probably one of the most intense holes I've ever played, I've played much harder courses but this hole takes the cake. Starting on the top of a hill you shoot down a skinny fairway with tall grass and trees on either side, to an open area with a bridge to help you walk over to the other side of the lake to the basket (You play over water). Best to play it safe unless you're 100% sure with yourself and just play to the bottom of the hill and shoot across.
Hole #4 - An interesting hole, playing along the bank of the lake on your left and on the right a steep hill that goes up to some cabins and a parking lot. You play along side the lake up to a basket that is kind of in the middle of the hill and to the right. (You can not see the basket from the box)
Hole #5 - Similar to hole #4, however, a little bit more space between you and the lake as well you are on the slope of the hill which is much less steep.
Hole #6 - Took a minute to find this hole but it's a short little up-shot nothing spectacular about this hole.
Hole #7 - A straight pipe shot, narrow fairway with trees, brush, grass on both sides. Fun short hole.
Hole # 8, playing down the hill towards a picnic area, a family was literally sitting under the basket pretty much, I played up to them and didn't finish the hole due to not wanting to feel like a jerk.
Hole #9 - A nice hole big arc (Back hand hyzer, for the righ handers) Playing up the hill and to the left, enjoyed this hole.

Overall this course being a nine hole was great, technical and really the hardest 9 hole I've ever played, really well designed.

Cons:

- Tee signs, are very unique but a little hard to understand, took me a minute to figure them out, they are just different.
- The 'rough' is truly rough, fairways are amazing, but accidentally land anywhere else and enjoy possibly adding a stroke unless you get a great out.
- I think you could really fit 18 holes here, Much more space in the park to possibly expand this course.
- Not well marked, I spent the first 20-30 minutes walking the course to figure it out. I ended up accidentally finding hole #1
- No Tee boxes really (see other thoughts)
- No course sign with layout of course at starting location, there is a board but nothing was posted on it.

Other Thoughts:

It's a shame this course is beautiful, but because it's kind of 'out there' and is only 9-holes I see it gets VERY LITTLE play, There are no warn in trails, it's lush grass everywhere. Tee-boxes are really non existent, they have a board to mark the front of them, but they are all overgrown due to non-use.

Future possibilities: Cement Tee boxes, new updated Tee signs, Course map at hole #1. Possibly expand to 18 holes.
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